"Existentialism at the God Rodeo"

by Diana Goble

I picked this story only because of the name. It amused me, because how does one combine existentialism and a rodeo? Combining Exi. with God is easy, but a rodeo? Or a God Rodeo? This story is about a woman with a cheating husband, a son (who is exactly like her husband), and a daughter (who is the only one in her immediate family that she truly loves). It takes place in a day, starting with the morning vomit of blood, which turns into a fetal position on the floor of the bathroom.

The narration (I find it odd that most of what I do is first person) is depressing, but it fits the mood of the piece, and although it is a depressing story, you're not dragged through one sad thing after another because of Goble's dark humor that appears every once in awhile to break the sadness. Without that, I wouldn't have been abl to get to the end of the story. By the end of the story, I empathized with the narrator, and I was worried about her daughter, Annie. It was vague, but it wasn't, and it worked well in this short story.

Read it for yourself at Toasted Cheese

4 stars (I only read stories I like, is that a problem? Books are a different story, no pun intended)